Gentlemen, place your BluBets

Like so many of the "sins," this country has its collective head up its ass when it comes to the natural inclinations of its inhabitants. We are the most open nation on the planet, in terms of individual freedoms and founding principles to protect them, and yet we are constantly hobbled by our Puritanical beginnings. Sex, drugs, controversial music or movies: we litigate against them and yet celebrate them in popular culture at the same time. But nothing shows the US of A's utter hypocrisy more evidently than gambling. It's illegal, yet in over half of the states in this country, you can legally gamble in casinos. And let's not even get started about the lottery: the worst cruel trick you can play on the most helpless people, and yet the state makes its revenues from it.

We love to gamble. We love to believe that we are imbued with that special power that will help us see something that the other people do not. We love to compete, and gambling lets us compete with the mind and imagination. How many times have you started a sentence with "I bet..." Really? Do you? Prove it.

Enter BluBet. Part Digg, part social phenomenon, and utterly unique. Sign up, and start placing your bets. On anything. And I mean, anything. Want to see if the Governator will pardon Paris Hilton? Will the Cubs finally win the World Series? How about if MUNI will kill more than 1 pedestrian this week in San Francisco? Or will W veto the upcoming Iraq spending measure out of buffoonish ignorance again? The choices are endless.

Very Web 2.0, and very clever, BluBet has all the hallmarks of the next great social property. Tags, liberal use of Flash interfaces, and lots of syndication blend the UI of Digg with YouTube. The only downside I see is the betting currency can only be ever used as a scorecard. What they really need to do is find a way for you to spend those BluBucks: it would have to be on something that has no real-world value (thanks to those twisted Puritans), like the ability to add an avatar and pimp it out, for instance. Differing levels of access: want to take BluBet mobile, spend a few BluBucks.

For now, I'm laying down the gauntlet on my first bet. $1500 BluBucks are on the line: come take my money:

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